the boredom of ramfree17

Yesterday, Betsy has finally decided that enough is enough. Betsy has finally suffered a neuro-mechanical shock and entered a deep state of comatose. In an effort to give more meaning in her existence, she broke a nerve and never woke up again from the lapse.

Betsy is lovingly survived by Lala and Paquito. Thank you for all the good memories.

Oh yeah, Betsy is my ~7 year old, triple-booted workstation. I was cleaning the computer command center (or nook depending on who is talking ) yesterday when the power switch on the Simba casing refused to work properly when I returned the chassis in the rack. I already took the casing apart but the switch is a one-piece deal and electricals is one area where I dont dare push my limited tinkering skills. This is the last straw for me so I decided to coax my Chief Financial Officer (CFO, aka Commander Wife-san) to finally approve Betsy’s upgrade. I am currently looking for an affordable barebones package (Chassis+Motherboard+Processor+RAM) since I will be reusing most of Betsy’s reusable components: the 60GB HDD and the DVD/CD Writers. I am currently looking at buyqube.com’s offerings but I am still confirming if they would allow the removal of the HDD and Optical drive on their packages.

For those interested, I am selling the remains of Betsy which is composed of the following:

• AMD Duron 800Mhz
• Redfox motherboard w/ built-in video (32MB shared) and sound
• 386MB SDRAM (256+128)
• 52X CD_ROM Drive
• PCI Lan card
• USB-PCI 1.1 adaptor card (6 ports, i think)
• The darned Simba chassis
• Aged (read:Yellowish) Speakers, keyboard and mouse

All except the chassis switch and ethernet card is working since it has been a long time since I used it on a network. Based on current market price of the components, I am setting the asking price to Php2,000 (which is already a bargain price). I am also willing to add a 2GB Fujitsu HDD but it is missing a jumper but usable as a floppy disk since I sometimes use it with an external HDD enclosure. So if you are interested then do drop me note.

Btw, Lala and Paquito are the given names of my laptop and Ipaq. Once upgraded, Ol’Betsy is to be named Bettina. /lol

ciao!

Tags: Garbage by Erin
2 Comments »

According to my college logic professor, beautiful debates happen when two opposing sides can argue the validity of their points without any intent of winning the other side over. At least during the duration of the debate. It is highly unlikely that one side will immediately appreciate the points and counter-points presented to them since it is hard for any rational human being to completely do a 180 degrees on what they believe in.

If the person engaged in the debate is easily swayed into the arguments of the other side it does not mean that the other side is good. It means that the person easily swayed did not really believe the position (s)he is in.

Good debates make people think long after the debate is over. Debates per se do not involve shouting matches, nor employ dirty tactics like name-calling or derogatory insinuations. Any ‘debates’ using those are not really debates but merely arguments. Debates are exchange of ideas fueled by passion and intelligence, while arguments are exchage of words laden with emotion. You ‘win’ debates not because you deliver beautifully crafted speeches, but because you stimulated other people to think for themselves if what you said was true.

I admire people who could deliver a good debate but they are few and far between. Most belong to the average category (I wish I belong to this category, lol) but the moment their passion begins to sound like emotions then that is the time I just phase out (or phase them out).

Gist of this post: Debates make people think, good debates make the other side think, arguments can get people killed.

ciao!

Tags: Rubbish by Erin
No Comments »

The first one I attributed to recklessness, the second on tiredness. However the third time is too much since I verified that I know my arti, areth.. err my math!

I am talking about the spam-deterrent math verification system that Chris has in his blog. Everytime my answer failed I lose whatever I have written but this time I was pretty sure that 10 + 10 is 20 unless it is in binary!

Anyway I tried it on another post wherein I was asked 2 + 3. So it is not binary! I answered 5 and even have a screenshot to prove it (none of the error though).

I notified Chris about this peculiarity and I was writing this he called me up (*mucho dinero!*). He tried it on one of his pages and he got the same error (hehehe, he sucks in math too) but on the other post it went through. I tried posting a test comment again and it was successfully entered.

I blame it on the code gremlins. And no, my math skills may be retarded by I know my rith, arthme, math!

ciao!

Tags: Garbage by Erin
4 Comments »